The Impact of Disaster on Kin Relationships

Using a quasi-experimental design which permitted comparisons among victim and nonvictim families three years after a large community disaster, two types of questions were explored: (1) What were the patterns in kin relationships prior to and immediately following the event? (2) Were these patterns changed three years later? Three years after the disaster victim families reported higher interaction frequencies with immediate kin; more often designated relatives, as opposed to friends, as future help sources; and more frequently indicated that they visited more often with relatives than friends. However, nonvictim families reported more frequent participation in exchange transactions and activities with relatives in general, e.g., borrowing or lending.